🛡️ CVE-2025-38499 on Debian — linux

⚪ Unknown ✅ No Known Exploit OSV

N/A

CVSS Score

0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: clone_private_mnt(): make sure that caller has CAP_SYS_ADMIN in the right userns What we want is to verify there is that clone won't expose something hidden by a mount we wouldn't be able to undo. "Wouldn't be able to undo" may be a result of MNT_LOCKED on a child, but it may also come from lacking admin rights in the userns of the namespace mount belongs to. clone_private_mnt() checks the former, but not the latter. There's a number of rather confusing CAP_SYS_ADMIN checks in various userns during the mount, especially with the new mount API; they serve different purposes and in case of clone_private_mnt() they usually, but not always end up covering the missing check mentioned above.

Distribution advisory

This page covers CVE-2025-38499 as tracked by Debian, for the package linux. The fix is available in version 6.16.3-1; earlier versions remain affected.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity none, availability high.

Affected software

DEBIAN-CVE-2025-38499 is recorded against 2 packages.

linux (fixed in 6.16.3-1)
linux-6.1 (fixed in 6.1.153-1~deb11u1)

Timeline and source

Published on 11 August 2025 and last revised on 4 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from OSV.

References

security-tracker.debian.org (Advisory)

CVE-2025-38499 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

BellSoft Base record Debian 11 (Root.io)Debian 12 (Root.io)Ubuntu 22.04 (Root.io)Ubuntu 24.04 (Root.io)Ubuntu

Details

Severity Unknown

CVSS Score N/A

CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CWE N/A

Public Exploit ✅ No

Source OSV

Published 2025-08-11

Updated 2026-08-12

Modified 2026-08-04

Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software	From version	Fixed in
linux	—	6.16.3-1
linux-6.1	—	6.1.153-1~deb11u1

References

ADVISORY https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-38499

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